Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball to Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic at the Qatar Open 2016 semifinal match in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016.
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Nadal regained a degree of control, withstanding a 26-shot rally that concluded with a supreme backhand from his opponent, to register his first game of the afternoon, but was obliging in the Serb’s following service game as the world No. 1 edged towards the first set.
Their most recent meeting on the ATP World Tour came back in November of 2015 at the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
Novak Djokovic leads Rafael Nadal 24-23 in their head-to-head record.
Having lost to Djokovic in last year’s final at Melbourne Park and in the 2011 and 2013 title-deciders, world No 2 Murray was under few illusions as to the scale of the task.
Nadal had taken the first two sets before Djokovic retired with an injury, granting the Spaniard victory as he went on to successfully defend his title.
“I know his character, how big of a fighter he is and how hard he works”, the world No. 1 said, adding that “there’s a reason” why the current world No. 5 is one of the greatest of all time. He won three grand slam titles – losing in the final of the French Open to Stan Wawrinka – six Masters Series crowns and 11 titles in total.
The Qatar ExxonMobil Open is a tune-up event for the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, the Australian Open, which gets underway on January 18.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are going to face each one more time. “I played like I wanted to”.
“It gives me a lot of confidence and satisfaction, particularly against Rafa”. He has now won the past five matches against Nadal.
The 28-year-old broke twice in both sets as Nadal, 29, had no answer to the pace and power of his groundstrokes. “I’m just looking forward to a great battle”. More importantly, it moved Djokovic level with André Agassi for the ninth most titles won in the Open era.
Djokovic’s fine form would continue right at the beginning of the second, as he instantly broke in the first game of the match to grab yet another advantage. Even his reflexes seemed flawless-he lunged to reach a Nadal forehand drive for a put-away pass, and went on to break Nadal again with a bruising baseline rally that made the super-fit Spaniard look leaden-footed.
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“It’s for every young player an incredible experience to play with probably the greatest of all time”, Thiem said.
